


Lighthouses

by Lihai



Category: Saint Seiya The Lost Canvas
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-15
Updated: 2011-09-15
Packaged: 2017-10-23 18:31:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/253556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lihai/pseuds/Lihai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yuzuriha muses on travel expenses, the price of survival, and bedfellows. Post-series, genfic, possibly AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lighthouses

On waking up, Yuzuriha accidentally dug her elbow into the person next to her, who grunted and rolled away. For a moment she was bemused, then remembered what day it was. "Get up, we're leaving early," she announced. "Shion-sama might have a busy schedule today."

"Hey, time zone difference, remember?" came the muffled reply from underneath the blanket. "It's still dark in Greece. We're a few hours ahead."

She bounced off the bed, making it shake a little and eliciting another protest. "I said early, not right this minute. I just don't like lingering in bed once I'm awake. Even if it's Atla's turn to make breakfast."

Yato sat up, clear-eyed with optimism. "It's his turn? Great. I hope he's making minced mutton, heaps of it."

"Aren't you too old for big appetites?"

He flung the blanket aside with a snort. "I'm twenty-one, so if I'm old, what does that make you? But I'm guessing the answer is no."

"Atla's been experiencing with new recipes lately. Some of the results taste wonderful. If you're lucky this could be one of those days."

"I'll take my chances."

He got off the bed and slipped into the old shirt he arrived in last night. Its color was a curious mixture of copper and gray, its collar sporting a tattered look. Being a Saint of Athena never did come with a large pension check, she mused. A future Kyouko might be able to figure out a solution for that.

"What?" Yato said, returning her stare.

She folded her arms. "Where have you been these past few months? You haven't told me."

A guilty grin broke across his face. "The usual, here and there. Exploring the world, just to see what people do when some contemptuous lord of the underworld isn't painting them into oblivion. Want to come along with me sometime?"

Every two years she and Atla paid a regular visit to Shion in Sanctuary. It was rather like visiting an older relative - which he was, in a way. Yato, being aware of the schedule, would return to Jamir and go with them. Other times he showed up randomly, to vanish again shortly afterward. Often he asked Yuzuriha if he could sleep next to her. She always said yes, understanding the comfort of having another human being close by when almost all of your friends were gone. He never snored, and was offended when she expressed her admiration for the fact.

"Come along with you," she repeated. "I would love to, but I have to stand guard here. Atla and I will also have to start looking for our replacement."

"You Jamir folks live a long life. I'm sure you'll last until the next war comes along and the new Aries is chosen."

An Aries Saint who was not Shion struck Yuzuriha as an alien concept. Yato was right, though: later Shion would have to appoint the next Aries in line. The person might become yet another regular visitor in Jamir, long after Yato or Yuzuriha herself were dead. Somehow this realization troubled her, as if she and Shion had never discussed it before.

\---

 

Sinking into a large tub of warm water usually soothed her, except on days like this, when a visit to Sanctuary was scant hours away. Not that she disliked having to play the role of a senior, a war survivor that her juniors looked up to. That was a normal part of being a Saint. But these visits were taking their toll on Atla, who grew paler on each return trip to Jamir.

"We could try going by the land route," she had suggested, knowing full well that he would refuse. "And taking turns - you go this year, I go next time."

Atla shook his head. "I'll manage. We might have to visit every three or four years, but I can still carry us there."

Maintaining peace was grueling work, although perhaps Libra Douko in Gorouhou felt otherwise.

The shaft of sunlight coming through the bathroom window had grown brighter. It was time for her to hold up the torch passed on to her, nod at a familiar face and newly made friends. Six years after the war was far too soon for exhaustion to trickle in. If fate was good to her, it might not happen for another thirty or fifty years.

Yuzuriha climbed out of the tub, savoring the sunlight's passing warmth across her back.

\---

 

Instead of going straight to the breakfast table, she went past the house and the outcrop behind it. The wind teased her now shoulder-length hair, tossing the drying strands away from her temples. Beyond the outcrop lay a row of grave markers, the final resting place of the Jamir guardians. Hakurei's stood at the very front.

Kneeling down, she fingered the scars across the inside of her arm. Hakurei had had more scars, she knew, mementos from comrades-in-arms who died in spite of his lifeblood on their Cloths. When she was young, it had seemed unfair to her that an armor could be resurrected only after a human was willing to make a sacrifice.

Not at all, Hakurei had told her. A Cloth has a soul too, so it is a fair exchange. And guardians like us do more than stand and watch, child. We are here to make sure everything goes well. At any cost.

Had she been reduced to no more than a sentinel of this place, then? Or had she been elevated to something more than a mortal woman? Not that the answer would make any difference. Jamir had claimed her and she was now its mistress. She had her duties, like any other war survivor.

"Yuzuriha?"

She stifled a sigh. Atla mostly left her alone, giving her a large personal space in which she and her thoughts were free to roam around. Yato preferred to keep tabs on both she and Atla, which was neither a surprise nor, if she was to be honest, a big deal.

"Is Atla ready?" she asked, rising to her feet.

"We are. But you've got to eat first."

The sigh dissolved into an open smile. He frowned at her, as if gauging the meaning behind such apparent good cheer, and that made her smile widen even more. "I'll be quick about it," she assured him. "So do we have minced mutton after all?"

**Author's Note:**

> In the final manga chapter, Yato says he and Yuzuriha can't go to Sanctuary because he's lost his Cosmo and she her telekinetic power. I'm assuming Atla can still teleport people around, only not as easily as he used to, due to Hades's attack.


End file.
